Gotham City Sirens by Paul Dini Review

This book was a bit of a roller coaster.

I picked this up from the library because I love Paul Dini and thought I'd give it a go - the Guillem March art was just a nice bonus.

Dini tends to like to write in shorter form, not much of a slow-burn storyteller. Maybe its his time in TV, and the era he spent in that realm, that helps him build a cohesive, well thought story in a short span of screen/page time. Part of why this was a roller coaster is that the stories were shorter, and some were good while others weren't.

With 13 issues in this volume, Dini wrote 9 of them. Interestingly enough, of the 4 he didn't write, 1 was the best in the book, and two were the worst two in the book. Issues 12 and 13, written by Tony Bedard, had a heavy Catholic antagonist. Being Catholic, I don't care for that to start, but it also seemed like he did zero research. In Roman Catholicism, nuns are not able to be exorcists, only priests appointed by the bishop. Saint Bertram does not have a skull relic associated with him (but I guess this can be chalked up to this being fiction), and the whole evil guardian angel thing just makes me cringe a bit.

The best story was issue number 8, with the story by Guillem March. Ivy is framed for murder and the Sirens need to figure out who it actually was. They do some fun detective work, and there's an awesome Commissioner Gordon moment in this issue that I won't spoil.

Overall, I'd recommend this to any Batman fan - generally speaking these characters aren't my cup of tea but I enjoyed this overall!